'The Santa photo is wearing pretty thin and I've had enough'

My kids tip-toe around the topic with excitement but mostly nervousness. They’re unsure and a bit scared.

The Santa Photo.

For the past eight years, our growing family has had a Santa Photo. Their only formal picture of the year. Something I’ve always considered to be a lovely snapshot – a moment frozen in time so we can forever remember the chubby cheeks, little legs, missing teeth, wisps of hair and blonde summer pigtails. The joys of our summery Christmas.

But this year may just be the last. We’re done.

I have four little one’s – 8, 6, 5 and 3 – and none of them are overly thrilled about heading to the shops to sit on a strange man’s knee. It’s all just a little bit weird.

It was this post from Ellen that gave me the heeby-jeebies:

I quite love Ellen. This is not about her. It’s about this photo and the millions like them. I have photos just like this. So many parents do. But for the first time I feel terribly uncomfortable about it.

Ellen’s callout has gone viral with thousands of posts vying for her attention:

For the past eight years, I’ve taken my littlies off to the staged shot in the local shopping mall. My husband and I are professionals at orchestrating the Santa Photo. To avoid waiting in queues, we leave the house early. I wait in the line while my husband puts a movie on in the car. At showtime, I call my husband and the kids arrive and walk straight on to the set. Like ROCKSTARS. Of course, Santa is waiting with his elves (photographers) where they’d blow bubbles and play with puppets to make my children somewhat happy on what was one of the scariest days of their year. We’ve had tears from three out of four. Every year, NO ONE wants to sit near Santa and no one certainly wants to talk with him. At the end, they mutter the idea of some present they might like whereby Santa half-heartedly agrees and we walk out about $50 poorer with a staged, tantrum-filled photo and rather odd memory.

The Santa Photo is nothing but a money-spinner and we’ve all been sucked in.

What’s more, it’s doing more harm than good. For kids. And their parents.

It’s been about a month since we dressed up in scary costumes to celebrate Halloween. Convincing our kids it’s a good idea to be walking around the streets, knocking on doors asking for lollies. After patching up that foggy message (yikes!), we’re on the cusp of sending another (and far more upsetting) idea that no matter how uncomfortable our kids might feel, parents want – in fact, encourage – children to sit with a big stranger in a suit for a photo. In front of many people. In a shopping centre. On a set. And SMILE!

I’m sounding very Grinch-like but I care more for my kids than I do for Santa and some silly photo. I want my children to forever feel safe and secure. I never want them to feel otherwise. To force them into a situation that makes them feel anything other than that isn’t right.

I won’t lie. I’ve done it. I’ve laughed. Many times. Over eight years I have several snaps of my at least one child crying or running. I sent it to my family, we all chuckled and it went in the album. But after eight years of the same old, same old … the Santa photo is wearing pretty thin. Expensive, weird and scary.